Lucy Becomes a Sculptress
Previous episode: Ricky Has Labor Pains Next episode: Lucy Goes to the Hospital http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s29/ABMfisher/MotherKnee.jpg http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s29/ABMfisher/LucyBust.jpg Plot Lucy finds a picture in the family photo album of her great-grandfather, who was a famous artist. This sparks Lucy's interest in becoming an artist to expose her unborn baby to culture. She ends up being talked into buying clay at the art supply store, and she decides to become a sculptress. She makes a horrible sculpture of a child at its mother's knee and one almost equally horrible of Fred bent over holding a pie plate-made discus. Lucy tells Ricky that she wants an art critic to come judge her work, but Ricky doesn't think she has the talent to show off her pieces to a critic. Still, he agrees to have a critic come over, on the agreement that, if the critic also says she doesn't have talent, she has to drop the whole venture. In preparation for the art critic, Lucy plans to make a bust copy of her whole head in plaster of Paris. Ethel stops her, saying that Lucy wouldn't be able to breathe if she put her whole head in plaster. So, instead, Lucy covers her head in clay and hides her body under a table. The result looks like a perfect replica sculpture, and the art critic insists that he must have it. Is he ever surprised when he tries to pick up the sculpture and has Lucy's body move with the "sculpture"! Trivia *While Ethel is supposed to be sitting still to model for Lucy, she tells Lucy a story about a woman who kept waiting and waiting for her baby to arrive, and when she finally did deliver the baby, what did she do but end up having twins! *The pictures of baby Lucy and baby Ricky in the photo album are real pictures of the stars as toddlers. The couple took the pictures from their own family album. *The part where Ethel pretends to ruin the sculpture of Lucy's head by moving her mouth and such is an excellent example of how well Lucille Ball could make outrageous facial expressions. Try moving your lip corners up and down as much as Lucy's mouth was moved- just see how difficult it is to do, let alone to keep your lip in that position. *In this episode, Lucy Ricardo is said to be only three weeks away from her due date. In the previous pregnancy episode she was only six months pregnant. Three months went by in the interim between episodes! *While being Lucy's model, Ethel tells Lucy a story about how their friend Jane Sebastian's baby was very overdue, and when Jane finally went to the hospital to have the baby, she ended up having twins. Jane must be a super mom, because it is quite rare for twins to stay in the womb for the full 40 weeks, let alone be very overdue! The more babies in a uterus, the quicker the uterus stretches to its maximum limit, which is why the vast majority of multiple births happen prior to 40 weeks. *After the newspaper art critic tries to lift up the head of Lucy's "statue," you can tell that she has a wig on to simulate plaster hair. The critic's touch moved the wig a bit, revealing Lucy's real hair beneath. *While pretending the bust of Lucy's head is real, Ethel said that Lucy made the self-portrait sculpture by putting up seven mirrors around the room, to catch every possible angle. Quotes *Lucy: (about Ricky's baby picture) What did they call you? "Fancy Pants"? Everything's at half-mast! *Ricky: Where is artistic talent? Lucy: It's been sleeping for three generations. I just have to wake it up. Ricky: Look, will you do me a favor? Pull down the blinds and let it sleep! *Art salesman: We have a complete stock of all the media. Lucy: Media? Salesman: What do you like to work in? Lucy: Oh, just an old smock. *Lucy: Oh, fingerpainting- that sounds good. I won't have to buy anything. I already have fingers! *Lucy: It's a child at its mother's knee. Ricky: Oh, sure. I can see it now! Sure! Oh, look at that cute 'spression on the child's face. (to part of sculpture he thinks is the child) Coochie-coochie-cootchie-cootchie! Lucy: That's the knee! *Lucy: (about what the sculpture represents) It's as plain as the nose on your face. Ethel: Oh, yeah! Lucy: Well? Ethel: IS it the nose on somebody's face? *Fred: As long as I'm stuck in this position, I think I'll go bowling! *Ricky: If they deliver the baby COD, I'm gonna have to send him back! *Lucy: critic William Abbott said I was brilliant! Ricky: He also wanted to sell you some clay! *Lucy: I'm gonna make a bust of myself. Ethel: I thought you'd already done that? *Ethel: Lucy put a lot of herself in this statue.﻿